Endoscopes are commonly used to examine an interior body cavity such as the large intestine of a patient. A conventional endoscope typically includes an elongated, flexible shaft which terminates in a viewing window through which the interior body cavity of the patient is viewed. The shaft of the endoscope may be progressively inserted into the body cavity for examination purposes. Types of endoscopes include gastric endoscopes which are used to view the stomach and small intestine and pulmonary endoscopes which are used to view the bronchial passages of the lungs.
One of the limitations commonly encountered using conventional endoscopes is the lack of a suitable system for tracking the location of the endoscope in the body cavity of the patient during the examination procedure. Therefore, an endoscope tracking system for tracking an endoscope within a body cavity of a patient is needed.